The sky around vdB 128 at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
vdB 128 is a reflection nebula in Cygnus, 6,400 light-years away
vdB 128 is a reflection nebula in the constellation Cygnus, 6,400 light-years away. spans 16′ of sky, about 30 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in September.
Nebula: a cloud of gas and dust. Emission nebulae glow on their own, lit by ultraviolet light from hot young stars; reflection nebulae shine by starlight scattered from dust; dark nebulae block the light behind them.
vdB 128 is vdB 128 in the Van den Bergh catalog of reflection nebulae
Sidney van den Bergh listed it in his catalog of reflection nebulae (1966), drawn from the Palomar Sky Survey. He chose nebulae lit by a star bright enough to appear in the Bonner and Cordoba star catalogs. The star that lights it is HD 190603, B1.5Ia, magnitude 5.6. He rated it moderate in brightness and intermediate in color.
Finding vdB 128 from Sadr
vdB 128 lies 8.8° southwest of Sadr, the magnitude 2.2 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
vdB 128 is highest in the evening in September
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole northern hemisphere and south to about 58°S, and never sets north of 58°N.
vdB 128 is 6,400 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 128 tonight left it about 6,400 years ago. It ranks 155 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (1961 pc).
